As we have come to expect in recent years, intermediate and novice sections were very lightly filled, many classes remaining uncontested. Several senior exhibitors were absent, but the doyen of us all, Geoff Rollinson, capped a successful Show with the two major awards and a Certificate of Merit for his Primula ‘Stella’.

His sterling Androsace villosa v. taurica won the Farrer Medal. The latter is a distinctive plant, the tight growth habit of which shows little resemblance to more familiar westerly expressions of this extremely widespread species, thus enhancing its suitability for pot culture. Its origins from the Crimea are belied by its Turkish-sounding epithet, thus confirming its suitability for classes for plants of European distribution. In fact it was originally described in Flora USSR as A. taurica, a status which better fits its individuality.

One of the best Primula henrici seen in recent years also won Geoff the Finley Swift Trophy for the best plant in a small pan.

When first introduced by the AGS ACE Expedition in 1994, this was named as the related, but very dissimilar P. bracteata, which was seen here in its newer guise as P. bullata subsp. bracteata, winning the AGS seed distribution award, a travelling trophy, for Peter Hood.

For me, the outstanding genus on the day was Pleione. John Craven’s P. grandiflora ran the Farrer plant close, and was awarded a well-deserved Certificate of Merit. John also brought P. ’Shantung Ducat’ with 15 flowers, a fitting memorial to the superb P. forrestii hybrids raised by the late David Harberd more than 40 years ago. I also greatly admired Pleione ‘Glacier Peak Everest’, shown by Steve Clements and displaying 35 flowers.

More excellent pleiones were shown in the Same Cultural Conditions class by Don Peace, winner of the Gould Trophy for Open Section aggregate.

I also enjoyed entries which were educational, but not overtly so, such as Chris Lilley’s three similar but distinct small yellow-flowered Primula section Auricula hybrids, ‘Lindum Gold Rush’, ‘Alan’s seedling’ and David Philbey’s raising ‘Mary Chapman’.

This may be an opportune moment to mention my own benching of Primula subpyrenaica, the little-known sole representative of yellow-flowered auriculas in the Pyrenees. Seed was introduced a few years back by Jim Jermyn, and plants have established well in several places in the rock gardens at Branklyn Garden, Perth. Hopefully, it has a bright future on the show bench.

Among other award plants, I admired Della Kerr’s Erythronium ‘Ryedale’ which won the Chatsworth Trophy for best bulbous plant. I remember her excellent E. multiscapoideum, so Della has a track record in the genus!

Finally, mention to John Savage who not only won the Chesterfield Vase for best Ericaceae with Andromeda polifolia ‘Compacta’, but also masterminded the Gold Medal winning display of AGS activities which formed an educational backdrop to the proceedings.

Reporter: John Richards
Photographer: Jon Evans